A Bolt from the Blue

Final Chapter

It happened eventually, a few days later. As they were in the elevator, going up for the morning briefing, Natasha interrupted the silence.

"This is where you last spoke to me," she murmured softly, pensive. He raised an eyebrow and turned to look at her. "It was late in the evening, I was stepping out of the elevator; you were stepping in," she stated at the same pace than the train of her thoughts. "And I told you 'See you tomorrow'. That was the last time, wasn't it?"

He watched her intently, hopeful but afraid to give in to the joy within too early.

"Yes," he whispered. "Do you...remember?"

Natasha frowned, biting her bottom lip as she seemed to go through some memory scan. "I think I am." She glanced up at him and smiled, looking as hopeful as him.

From what she said, the full picture was still blurry but some specific memories were beginning to emerge in detail, like a wave washing over the shore repeatedly, in slow but consistent motions, leaving a deeper print on the sand each time around. And hearing her refer to Natasha as herself was the greatest step forward the whole situation could take. If she began to identify herself as the modern Natasha, then it meant their two consciences were merging as one.

Soon, Natalie and Natasha would fully become the same and one person.

"Since you're too noble to ask me then I will tell you," she murmured one night as they both lay in bed, looking at each other. Days were hardly long enough to quench their satiety of each other — most nights they would talk until slumber got the best of them.

"Tell me what?" he said softly as he brushed a lock of her hair to the side of her face.

"What I- what Natasha felt for you before we merged," she said. His heart skipped a beat. He had been afraid to get an answer he could not bear to hear. And, with the days going by since Natasha had fully recovered her current self's memories and yet not answered his burning question, the certitude that she might have not felt anything more than friendship for him had grown too.

She smiled. "She loved you," she said simply but with a slightly shaky voice. Her pupils quivered as she seemed to look into his eyes and be overflown with a wave a memories. "So vividly. Much more clearly than it was from me before I used Thor's device."

A deaf sound slipped out of his lips and he reached over to cup her face gazing at the Natasha he had known until a couple of weeks before. She rested her hand on top of his.

"She was only afraid to forever remain the second woman, the one whom whatever love or affection you could feel for her would always be doomed to be less. But yes, she loved you."

She smiled to herself and went on. "It's funny. I thought I could never love you more than I already do. But now, adding hers, it's more than I knew humanly possible."

He smiled back. "I know the feeling," he said gently.

As indescribable bliss and sheer relief took hold of all of him, he leaned over to her and for the first time since that one moment on the escalator a year before when they were on the run from HYDRA, he kissed his Natasha. And his Natasha kissed him back.

And after sealing their mutual love in his kiss, he never dissociated the two women he loved ever again.

Standing alone on the terrace looking over Manhattan, Steve and Natasha heard the footsteps of a person approaching. Bucky walked up to them with the most bizarre mix of self-confidence and unfamiliar reserve.

So far Bucky and Natasha's interactions had been brief and cordial in the way you would converse with a stranger. Mostly, the awkwardness seemed to come from James, Steve had noticed.